Silk Naturals

I found Karen's blog while searching for good mineral makeup, and I'm really excited to try Silk Naturals! I'm just a little concerned because I have a darker skin tone (warm caramel w/yellow undertones) and I'm pretty inexperienced with makeup, so I'm not sure if all the colors I selected will look good on me. My usual go-to attire/look is casual yet sophisticated, so bright colors wouldn't really work for me. I'm also under eighteen, and I usually have pretty clear skin. The reason I'm searching for makeup is for acting purposes, i.e. head shots and stage makeup (because stage lights are HARSH!!)

Here are the products I plan on getting:

Eyes
Bareback
Buttercup
Clear cream liner (so excited to try this!)
Stonewashed nudes
Lush black mascara
First Kiss

Lips
Dame
Dixie
Heirloom
Honeysuckle

Face
Drama contour
Deluxe sample kit of foundation

So now a few questions...

1. Do any of the above products seem too dark/light for my complexion and style?
2. I plan on using the Bareback w/ the cream liner to create an "eye brightener", similar to the white eyeliner people use to brighten their eyes. Will it work, or is Bareback too dark?
3. Can you recommend any blushes for my complexion? And if you could recommend anything else, that would be great.

Thanks in advance!

It is very hard for me to give color recommendations without seeing a photo. Is there any way you could send me one in a pm or upload to an email through the website?

Hmmm I can imagine you look a lot like my little sister in terms of skintone. I actually posted a picture of me and my little sisters once in my earliest post. Maybe i can help you a little from what she looks good in and what she loves.

Lippies
She rocks red like nobody's business (well she might have that sort of hispanic skintone), but we don't have any reds from SN yet. She uses Guerlain KissKiss Laque in Rouge Hollywood and an orange-red matte lipstick from Topshop. Those are her faves. She also looks good in mauves (I look like a corpse in mauve).
SN wise, she looks awesome in Caramel and Birthday Suit. Both are casual nudes. Get the mauves and reds and browns.

Blushes
As for blushes the vivid colors seem to suit her best, like Diablo and Palace. She loves Palace so much. Afterglow (heavily applied) looks very pretty on her, very J.Lo-ish. Embrace and Flirt are also good.

Eyeshadows
As for the eyeshadow goes, I think SN UD Naked clone is a must. I particularly love Blue Steel, Colt, and Scout. My sister loves Dark Arts, Rollick and Blue Steel. Dark Arts especially. We also love Sonic for highlighter or to fill the lid. I even use it to highlight my face. It's gorgeous because it's not stark white.

I'll add some more when something comes up. Hope that helps!

@JenW My camera died (and I can't find its charger), so I'll just use my cellphone camera. Sorry for the quality!

I'm actually a tiny bit darker than this, since the lighting in the bathroom is fluorescent. But hopefully you can get the general idea.

Sorry, I'm still getting used to this layout. Here is the picture:
@frckls, vivid colors and shimmery make-up make me look like I played in my mother's make-up box, since I look pretty young for my age. I'm pretty sure that I didn't describe my skin tone properly though, so that was my mistake. Now I see the importance of photos!

Well okay. Now that I've seen your photo, my sister is lighter in skintone than you are. But still, I believe you'll look awesome in those colors I mentioned, exception for the lippies because skintone affects how it will look on a particular person so much. For example, Birthday Suit looks horrible on me, but look totally gorgeous on her. Her skintone is probably somewhere like Eva Longoria?

You don't need to worry much for the blushes. You just have to apply them very light-handed because a little speck goes a looooooooong way. Use a fiber optic brush. The blush will look lightly applied and won't look very contoured, it'll look more like you have a nice healthy glow.
And the eyeshadows although they look sparkly in pictures or swatches but actually those are very fine shimmers and the right choice of color won't make you look old.

And I think we look young enough since Asians tend to have smaller build and sometimes people who don't live in Asia mistaken us to be much younger than we really are. Just like we Asians sometimes see youngsters in Europe or America to be much older than they actually are.
So I guess we know enough how to look young and fresh, even our mom constantly asks us how to do makeup and most of the times steal our stuff.

But I actually got pretty confused. You just said you want to look young, but in the post before you said you need stage makeup? Because for stage makeup you need highly pigmented stuff and vivid colors. I used to dance (traditional dances) back in high school, so I pretty much know how not-recognizable you must look in a stage makeup which doesn't call for light fresh makeup at all.

Well I don't want to look young or old really, but age-appropriate (although I'm not quite sure what that would be, lol). Like you said, I look pretty young already, so I don't really need to look younger. I'm just afraid of shimmery, bright colors because it has the affect of making me look younger, if possible.

Sorry I didn't elaborate on "stage makeup", I can see how that would be confusing! What I meant was, I'm looking for products that I can use on and off the stage that looks natural and fresh, but still provides good coverage. The reason why I'm saying this is because not all stage characters are bright and whacky enough for heavy, vivid makeup. For instance, if I were to play a schoolgirl, I wouldn't need bright red lipstick and dark eye shadows! I'd need something noticeable to highlight my features, but understated enough to look realistic. I also need makeup I can wear to head shots, auditions, etc. This information is kinda irrelevant now that I think about it, but I thought it would be worth mentioning what my "desired makeup look(s)" were.

Awesome, thanks for the recs then!! I get what you're saying about the lippies, that often frustrates me. I'll check out the blushes as well. Oh, and how hard was it for you to mix the foundation? I really want to try the deluxe sampler set, but it seems pretty difficult.

Thanks for helping

Oh okay I get it. But considering your age (below 17 right?), no color will make you any younger in the term of makeup. Young bright colors would only make you look fresh and done, but certainly not younger.

For the blushes, it's easy to amp up or to play it lowkey depending on how you apply it. Try Poppy, Babydoll, Apple, Satisfied. They're fresh and young enough.
For everyday use try the cream blush. Forever is a magnificent peachy pink. My sister fell in love at the first sight, I had to give her mine (I just bought it and haven't even tried it) and purchase another.

Recalling your needs, for eyeshadows it's best to start with neutral palettes like The Geo Collection (BB Stonewashed Nudes palette) and/or UD Naked palette clone. The shimmer is soo subtle you'll lose it if you sweep it. That's why I always dab it onto my lids. If you like to play with juicy colors I would suggest to try the Spring 2011 collection. The colors are so fun. If you're bold enough get Canary, Lagoon, Sorbet, Watermelon, Madison. They're the perfect summer colors.

As for lippies, I can't suggest much becuse even one same shade of lippie appers different on me and my sisters (I'm light-medium golden, my first little sister is medium warm, and the last is fair).
I've seen Birthday Suit shows up nicely on people with darker skin than me, and Caramel seems to fit almost all skintones and shades. Maiden is also gorgeous and fresh. Cultured might suits you well, because it's kinda nude mauve which looks super on my sister but just okay on me. Dame and Nectar might look great on you, I suppose.
If you're bold get Peachy Keen to layer on Dixie, or Mango. Orange lips are all the rage this season and looks fresh and young and fun. But for your age, try to keep it sheer and juicy.

I can't help you with the foundation since I don't use SN for that. I'm curious, but know best to avoid it since I'm too clumsy and there's a mighty chance I end up with half the supposed amount of product or nothing at all because one or other things (I accidentally sneeze and blow the powder all over places, I tip the jar or the baggie too far or drop them, my dog's breath blows the powder, my cat might jump onto the table it and kicks it off, I ruin the mixture and can't do damage control, etc). I'm sorry I can't help.

Thank you so much frckls!! I'll add those products to my cart.

I can give a little guidance as far as foundation. I do think you will end up being some blend of Deep Ebony and one of the other color bases plus white. If you have the chance, please add a sample of Deep Ebony to your cart as it is usually not included in the foundation sample kits.

1 Deep Ebony: 1 Warm Gold : 2 to 4, maybe 5 white. It is also possible that Buttery Gold will be a better fit in place of Warm Gold.